Microsoft is killing off Windows 10 in 2025

[midian182]

TL;DR: Just before it released Windows 10 in 2015, a Microsoft employee famously said it would be "the last version of Windows." It seems, however, that Microsoft's definition of "last" means enduring until 2025, which is when the company drops support for the OS used by 1.3 billion people.

Microsoft has updated its Windows 10 Home and Pro Lifecycle Policy page, writing that it will "continue to support at least one Windows 10 Semi-Annual Channel until October 14, 2025." Underneath the statement is confirmation that Windows 10 Home and Pro will be retired on that date. A header states this also applies to Windows Pro Education and Pro for Workstation.

No longer pushing out updates for an operating system effectively kills it off, though as we've seen with Windows 7, plenty of users stick around after this point despite the security risks. There's no mention of Windows 10 Enterprise or Windows Server versions in the document, suggesting these business-focused builds will have a later retirement date.

The update is more evidence that Microsoft is preparing to launch Windows 11. The company said it would be showing off "one of the most significant updates to Windows of the past decade" at an upcoming event, dropping hints of the "11" moniker with an 11-minute video of slowed down Windows Startup sounds and the livestream's 11 am start time.

Windows 10 still has some major updates in store before being retired, including Windows 10 21H2 (Sun Valley) that arrives later this year, revamping the current operating system with a new look and features.

Image credit: Wachiwit

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/90047-microsoft-ending-support-windows-10-2025.html

 

[SirDigby]

I'm not surprised, I'm just disappointed

 

[Geralt]

Windows 11 is coming!!!

 

[ypsylon]

Well with W10 unless there is some major amazing new thing on the horizon (like quantum computers getting released next year) it'll be much more difficult to kill 10 than 7.

For one 10 has full NVMe support, while 7 officially supported only 2 out of the box (950Pro and Intel750), 10 supports all peripherals currently on the market (Windows 7 required magic shenanigans sideloads for something so trivial as USB3.0 device detection during install process).

So yeah W10 will be "dead OS" much longer than 7. And locked down W10 (no updates) is surprisingly solid.

In a way I can see the reasoning to some extent behind new Winblows. Winblows like name implies completely blows at high core and asynchronous computing. Without major redevelopment I cannot see MS ever catching to *nix platform whether it's Linux or a ARM-Mac. Winblows get really clueless with anything above say 32 threads. If not for huge L3 in new Threadrippers we would see -probably- the same issues which plagued previous two series in that line. And let's not forget asynchronous CPUs coming into the fold. Like 8 low power cores and 24 high power cores. I'm sure M$ know for well that ARM Mac runs its ARM Windows better than Redmond's own silicone.

The only thing I want for W11 to retain is same distribution channel for us little ones. No f* subscriptions. Period.

 

[Puiu]

I'm not surprised, I'm just disappointed

Meh, they are just changing the name and they'll stop offering support for the last one named 10. Not much else since you'll just continue with 11 as if it was 10.5.

 

[yeeeeman]

Frankly, windows 10 is a mess.
I expect a bit of polish from the next windows version, because windows 10 looks like a development product, like an afterthought. Not trying to compare with Mac OS, but just comparing it to windows 7 and you can clearly see that at least visually, Windows 10 is a step down.

 

[Adi6293]

I have been thinking about trying this, it seems really good and easy to use

 

[BSim500]

Enterprise 1809 LTSC will be supported until 2029, so for those who want a bloat-free, BS-free, Cortana-free, "feature update"-free OS that actually feels like an upgrade from W7, there's always that for another 8 years of sanity.

As for W11 I'm predicting : 1. More monthly "overly flat wall of whitespace" ugly UI redesigns, 2. The same "bi-polar" Control Panel vs Settings "App", 3. A push for unwanted modding-unfriendly UWP exclusives as the "new norm" (guess which store would disproportionately benefit from having games packaged as that by default vs other games stores (Steam, GOG, etc) that "only" sell "legacy" Win32/64 games...), 4. More telemetry, 5. More bloat, 6. More restrictions on what consumer Home / Pro users can disable without needing Group Policies, 7. They'll go for the "Hat Trick" in re-breaking printer drivers in another future update...

 

[enemys]

In a way I can see the reasoning to some extent behind new Winblows. Winblows like name implies completely blows at high core and asynchronous computing. Without major redevelopment I cannot see MS ever catching to *nix platform whether it's Linux or a ARM-Mac. Winblows get really clueless with anything above say 32 threads.

It offers much worse performance scaling with cores than Linux, but I wouldn't call it "clueless" - it still scales somewhat in most scenarios (see https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=3990x-windows-linux&num=6). Fortunately that can be (and has already partially been) improved over time, though obviously for hardcore multicore number crunching Linux is the way to go. As for Mac, it used to be much slower than Windows even at 4 cores (see: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=macos1015-win10-ubuntu&num=10), but I've no idea how it performs now or how it scales with threads - if you do, please point me to appropriate benchmarks. Regarding Apple Silicon, we have no way to compare it's performance across different native OSes yet, so we don't really know if there is any "catching up" to do on the software side.

If not for huge L3 in new Threadrippers we would see -probably- the same issues which plagued previous two series in that line.

The issues with the first two generations of Threadripper were mostly due to their NUMA design and coupling memory controllers with cores (or even leaving some core complexes without direct memory access at all, as in TR 2900WX series), which is problematic on its own and which Windows isn't great at handling. Expanded L3 helps hide latency problems, but I'd argue that it's the rest of memory subsystem changes that matter the most.

And let's not forget asynchronous CPUs coming into the fold. Like 8 low power cores and 24 high power cores.

That's not asynchronous, that's asymmetrical or heterogeneous. An asynchronous CPU wouldn't have a clock.

I'm sure M$ know for well that ARM Mac runs its ARM Windows better than Redmond's own silicone.

There's no publically available "Redmond's own silicone". Microsoft SQ1/SQ2 are mildly customized, rebranded Qualcomm chips. But yes, Apple M1 using hardware virtualization to run Windows 10 is faster than SQ2 running it natively.

 

[whateversa]

Going to make that my new ring tone

 

[antiproduct]

Guess they gotta continue the competition with Apple in regard to OS version numbers.

 

[MasterMace]

Frankly, windows 10 is a mess.
I expect a bit of polish from the next windows version, because windows 10 looks like a development product, like an afterthought. Not trying to compare with Mac OS, but just comparing it to windows 7 and you can clearly see that at least visually, Windows 10 is a step down.

Considering the Tick-Tock nature of Windows releases, I would lower your expectations to match that of Vista, and Windows 8

 

[thelatestmodel]

I honestly wish gaming for Linux was better. Having gotten used to using it as a daily OS, dipping back into Windows for gaming is kind of annoying. And I do mean native versions - Wine / PlayOnLinux doesn't cut it for me. They're going to buckle under something like Flight Simulator in VR.

Do I think it's ever going to happen? No - I'll have to keep my main gaming PC running Windows probably forever - but the rest of my machines will always run Linux. Just a shame that the better OS will never become the dominant one.

 

[OortCloud]

Frankly, windows 10 is a mess.
I expect a bit of polish from the next windows version, because windows 10 looks like a development product, like an afterthought. Not trying to compare with Mac OS, but just comparing it to windows 7 and you can clearly see that at least visually, Windows 10 is a step down.

I think Windows 10 is pretty good in the main - sure it could be improved, especially the UI around all the settings which has been half-moved between version so many times now that we have about 3 different OS's worth of UX in different places. But fundamentally it is an extremely reliable, secure OS which allows a level of flexibility and supports a device list no other OS can come close to. I use it all day every day to do a boatload of very complex tasks and development and it carries on working without issues despite the abuse my code sometimes subjects it to!

 

[0dium]

Considering the Tick-Tock nature of Windows releases, I would lower your expectations to match that of Vista, and Windows 8

W10 isn't even good. It's so inconsistent. Yes, it has it's own advantages, stability, maybe. But UI is just awful. It isn't far away from w8. I wouldn't update from w7 if I didn't have to. If I have a problem I have to guess, is it in control panel or is it in this new "settings" thing. I replaced this ugly start menu with an alternative on day one. Dark theme doesn't even work like it should. In one place the background is dark, in the other it's white. How is it even acceptable?

 

[GamerNerves]

I assume many people will cling on Windows 10 if 11 is going to be much different. Such a great OS despite the telemetry stuff. For me the end of life date means finally moving out of "continuous beta stage", since stuff seem to be always changing and sometimes unfortunately breaking, but generally if you just delay updates you are good to go!

 

[yukka]

Well with W10 unless there is some major amazing new thing on the horizon (like quantum computers getting released next year) it'll be much more difficult to kill 10 than 7.

For one 10 has full NVMe support, while 7 officially supported only 2 out of the box (950Pro and Intel750), 10 supports all peripherals currently on the market (Windows 7 required magic shenanigans sideloads for something so trivial as USB3.0 device detection during install process).

So yeah W10 will be "dead OS" much longer than 7. And locked down W10 (no updates) is surprisingly solid.

In a way I can see the reasoning to some extent behind new Winblows. Winblows like name implies completely blows at high core and asynchronous computing. Without major redevelopment I cannot see MS ever catching to *nix platform whether it's Linux or a ARM-Mac. Winblows get really clueless with anything above say 32 threads. If not for huge L3 in new Threadrippers we would see -probably- the same issues which plagued previous two series in that line. And let's not forget asynchronous CPUs coming into the fold. Like 8 low power cores and 24 high power cores. I'm sure M$ know for well that ARM Mac runs its ARM Windows better than Redmond's own silicone.

The only thing I want for W11 to retain is same distribution channel for us little ones. No f* subscriptions. Period.

Winblows. Funny.

 

[hahahanoobs]

I always liked the idea of an OS version lasting a few years before moving on to the next one, so right now "Windows 11" can't come soon enough.

 

[ragreeen2646]

I worked in Support (DEC-Compaq-HP) for 27 years. I supported several OSs----Ultrix, System V, Tru64, Linux. Naturally we all had Windows laptops. Windows started to look something like an OS with W95. XP was the beginning of the real thing. OSX (MACOS) was much better until Windows 7.
Windows 10 is much better than Windows 7. I can run W10 on some very old hardware with little problems.
Linux suffers from too many distros of varying quality. As for OSX or MACOS (whatever is the current name).
I have an IMAC (new in 2010). I have WIN10 installed (via bootcamp) and as far as performance is concerned it is much better than OSX.
The new M1 OS variant from Apple may be a better performer.
The issue with Apple is getting software that is either free or decently priced to do the tasks that I need.
UNIX/LINUX is in my blood, but Windows 10 provides all that I need and a decent price.
Microsoft needs to find an ARM chip comparable to the M1 to support.
It seems that people love to hate Microsoft. I'm don't love it or hate it, but at the current time it fits my computing needs without breaking my wallet.

 

[defaultluser]

Is it finally going to come with a Feature-Complete replacement for the Windows XP Era Control Panel?

IF all they are doing is dressing-up the start menu again (Windoze 8 says hello!), it's going to be trash.

I'm looking forward to receiving my free upgrade to Windows 13 after Win Eleventy is a total failure.

 

[0dium]

I took a smoke, took a s**t, it's still updating

 

[SirDigby]

Meh, they are just changing the name and they'll stop offering support for the last one named 10. Not much else since you'll just continue with 11 as if it was 10.5.

I just hope we don't have to purchase a new license, I think W7/8 users got free upgrades to 10? I used to use a bootleg windows 7 copy and finally purchased a W10 license when I could afford to, hope I don't need another

 

[Puiu]

I just hope we don't have to purchase a new license, I think W7/8 users got free upgrades to 10? I used to use a bootleg windows 7 copy and finally purchased a W10 license when I could afford to, hope I don't need another

Yes, win 11 will come just like a normal update. "windows as a service" remember? It would be very weird otherwise.

 

[kiwigraeme]

I have W10 pro - assume most of us do . When I saw the screaming, wailing about how bad W10 GUI was etc . I thought it strange I had no problem using it from day 1 - I never understood their problem or inflexible coping .
As for spyware - I setup for minimum - nothing extra - and sleep soundly at night. Probably a lot less than Farcebook or Chrome .
Apple has the luxury of throwing Users under the bus 5 odd years - there is a hell of a lot more legacy stuff running strategic resources in the world on Windows - Apple just annoys video editors - who whine and come back for more .
As for Linux - oh I set it up for my grandparents and they are super happy blah blah . But most Linux Distros is not just plug and play for the man in the street - adding new drivers , software , permissions is not as easy as windows .
If you want simplicity get a chrome book - that really is plug and play

 

[captaincranky]

For one 10 has full NVMe support, while 7 officially supported only 2 out of the box (950Pro and Intel750), 10 supports all peripherals currently on the market (Windows 7 required magic shenanigans sideloads for something so trivial as USB3.0 device detection during install process).

Gigabyte foiled that sh!t in their boards during the transition period. In their EUFI BIOS, they installed USB 3.0 drivers. Win 7 went right in off DVD anyway. When the OS was up and running, there was (is) a "USB 3.0 handoff" setting. Of course Windows 7 was quite capable of finding these drivers online. All you had to do was tell it to look for them.

Besides, XP didn't have AHCI drivers, Vista did, and look where that got it.